US demands compensation from hacker

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.computerweekly.com/articles/article.asp?liArticleID=127341

By Bill Goodwin 
19 December 2003 
 
The US is demanding £21,000 in compensation from a teenage hacker who 
infiltrated computer systems at a US government nuclear physics 
research laboratory.

The compensation demand, believed to be the first time an organisation 
has used the UK criminal courts to recover the costs of repairing 
hacked computer systems, could set a precedent for future prosecutions 
against computer criminals.

Joseph James McElroy, 18, a first-year student at Exeter University, 
pleaded guilty to hacking into computer systems at Fermi National 
Accelerator Laboratory in Chicago, at a hearing at Bow Street’s 
magistrates court last month.

He admitted using the Fermilab computers, part of the US Department of 
Energy, to create a private bulletin board to store hundreds of 
gigabytes of copyrighted film and music files which he shared with 
friends.

The laboratory was forced to shut down the infected computer system 
for three days, to carry out repairs after staff noticed that 
scheduled back-ups were taking far longer than expected.

McElroy was arrested at his parents' home in London following a joint 
investigation by the US Department of Energy and Scotland Yard’s 
Computer Crime Unit.

He told police that he was under the impression that the Fermilab 
computers were owned by a university rather than a US government 
laboratory.

He admitted hacking into university computer systems to gain access to 
the internet because he believed they did not have to pay internet 
access charges. He told police that he made a point of not hacking 
into corporate systems.

At a hearing yesterday at Bow Street Magistrates court, Judge Daphne 
Wickham referred McElroy for sentencing at Southwark Crown Court in 
the new year.

Stuart Sampson, for the prosecution, told the court that the US 
government had estimated the cost of repairing the hacked computers at 
£21,000.

The figure, however, does not include the costs of the investigation 
which led to McElroy's arrest.



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